Solder resist is a common method to prevent an overflow of molten solder during a reflow process. It is standard in the printed circuit board industry. Solder resist is typically a polymer that is either patterned with photolithography on a laminated film or deposited by screen printing and solidified with a thermal or ultraviolet (UV) cure. The addition of a solder mask is an additional manufacturing process which requires liquid processing (in the case of a laminated film) or a thermal or UV cure (for a screen printed layer), each of which adds time, cost, tooling, and complexity in a module build.
Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative to solder resist.